Don't Call Me Kid
by Copper's Mama
Summary: Ames-centric fic. Ames is sick of being treated like a kid, and ends up having to prove herself the hard way. Please read and review!


_..._

_An Ames-centric fic. _

_..._

_Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Human Target. _

_..._

_A/N: Ames is one of my favorite characters on the show, after Guerrero, so I just had to do a little fic defending her character. Some people don't like her, and that's fine. Those of you who don't, feel free not to read it. _

_This one is pretty self-explanatory: Ames telling various members of the team not to call her kid. Honestly, she's at least in her early twenties, and there are very few things that piss me off more than middle-aged people - men or women - condescending people for their youth. _

_Anywhoo, let's get on with it, shall we? _

_I hope you guys like this, I know I'll love writing it. _

_As always, please read and review, I live for feedback! _

...

"I'm not a _kid_," she informed them for the umpteenth time. She was getting really sick of being treated like crap just because she was the newbie on the team, and had a less than angelic past. Chance was an assassin, Guerrero was a cleaner with next-to-no morals, and Winston was an alcoholic. Bottom line, no one was perfect. At least she was making an effort to get off the streets and do the right thing; be a good person.

Yeah, she was younger than them, but so what? It's not like they came out into the world like they were then ... their mothers didn't give birth to 35/40-year old men. They'd been her age once, and they'd probably beaten the crap out of anyone who had the gall to call them "kid".

"Keep telling yourself that," Guerrero responded off-hand, walking by her without a second glance.

Ames flared her nostrils, digging her hands into the back pockets of her tight jeans and scowling.

It was like that everyday. Well, not _everyday_ ... but it felt like that. Any time she had to ask them about one of their code-named plans, they showered her with annoyance for having to stop to explain themselves to her. Heaven forbid they provide her with a manual or a code BOOK so that she could actually start to learn about Uncle Harry or Aunt Linda. She was tired of being treated like she was incompetent, just because she was young and new. She knew that she would have to prove herself eventually, she was just waiting for the opportunity.

Fortunately - or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it - her opportunity came sooner than she would have thought.

Pick-pocketing a well-known gang banger for a key that would get them into a room their client's friend was being held in ... seemed simple enough, right? Well, it had been. Sort of.

She'd gotten the key, she'd made the pass off ... but she'd been seen. She made the drop with Chance, he'd taken off for the destination that Winston had managed to figure out, and was heading back to the surveillance van when they'd jumped her.

Before she could even let out a scream, they were on her. Two guys, big and mean-looking, hauled her into an alleyway, each with a solid grip on her arms while one held his hand over her mouth.

"Though you could rip off our boss, kid?" the one on her right asked her, tightening his hold.

Ames clenched her jaw, struggling against the both of them to no avail.

"We've popped uglier broads than you for a lot less," the other one promised, pulling a gun out of his side holster.

"Ames, where are you?" Winston's voice sounded in her ear.

She knew they could hear the thugs' voices, as they hadn't removed her ear COMM. With the hand over her mouth, though, she couldn't answer.

The first one who had spoken stopped his buddy from shooting Ames with a chilling statement. "Wait, let's have a little fun with this one first." His grip moved higher up her arm so that his finger could trace along the curve of her breast.

Ames's struggles increased, as she tried to get free of their grasp and get her mouth free at the same time.

"Easy there, bronco," the man with the gun cooed. "Bucking time ain't started yet."

"Ames, can you hear me?" Winston asked in a worried voice.

"Dude, give me her location, I can be there in two minutes," Guerrero's voice sounded next.

"You want me to turn back?" Chance wondered through the COMMs.

"We got this," Guerrero replied. "Get to the location. Come on, JV, speak up."

The gun-toting goon slid the weapon back into his hip-holster with a grin, using his now free hand to yank Ames's hair back.

The hand covering her mouth followed the movement, but there was just enough of a break for her to get her jaw opened. With a fierce resolve, Ames bit down on the hand.

He was the one struggling now, but she didn't let go of his hand until she tasted blood.

"Bitch!" he roared, the grip on her arm loosening as he shook his other hand in pain.

"Four alleys west of the bar, down at the end!" she yelled out as she turned to try and punch the other one.

He anticipated the movement, and grabbed her wrist, pulling her body around. "Bad move, kid," he stated, backhanding her across the face as he let go with his other hand.

Ames look the hit, wincing in pain as she spat out blood from the man she'd bitten. The expression was short lived, and she swung around with her foot, catching him in the knee. "Don't call me kid!" she bit back, throwing her fist into his face.

The other one had recovered from the shock of his wounded hand, and pulled her around to give her his own backhand treatment.

Ames managed to turn her head slightly with the blow so that it didn't hurt as badly, and then lunged for him, intending to strike him with her curled fist. She would have succeeded, had the one behind her not captured her arms above the elbows and pulled them back, hauling her against him.

"I'm almost there," Guerrero's voice broke through the may lay, the sounds of an engine revving in the background.

"I'm on foot, I'm still a couple blocks away!" Winston huffed out. "Hold on, kid!"

"Stop calling me that!" Ames gritted out before the goon in front of her slammed a fist into her gut.

The one holding her pulled her back against him, straightening her so that he could speak into her ear. "Who the hell you talkin' to, honey?"

Ames opened her mouth to bite back a scratching retort, but the one in front of her grabbed hold of her jacket and shoved it down her arms, stopping where his friend's hands were planted.

"Time to show you your place, bitch," he told her, and the guy behind her chuckled in response.

Ames turned her nose up at his foul breath, trying not to imagine what they were attempting to do to her. Remembering where her captor had placed his gun, she carefully tested her mobility to see if she could reach back without being noticed.

Luckily - again, or unluckily - the next blow to her face disguised the movement.

"Next time, you'll know not to rip off the wrong badass," her captor told her.

Ames gritted her teeth and secured her hand, turning her burning face to get a half-decent view of him. "And next time, you'll know to keep your gun in a safer place."

His eyes widened, but he didn't move fast enough to stop her from pulling his gun out of its holster. The next second, a shot rang out, and his toes totaled in nine. He screamed in agony and dropped his hold on her.

Ames dove to the side as soon as he let go, knowing the other one would react quickly to her shooting of his friend.

"Ames!" a voice hollered in her ear, but the blood was pumping so loud, and her heart was pounding so fast, that she honestly couldn't tell which male team member had shouted in surprise over the COMM link.

Ames shifted the gun into her right hand, her finger settling over the trigger just in time to stop the second goon from rushing her. With a half-second to decide, she pulled the trigger to save her own life. A deafening silence followed the bang of the gunshot, and the man seemed frozen in place for an eternity. Ames couldn't move, never mind breathe, as she watched him stare right back at her. Then, all at once, the scene changed. His entire body sagged, and a shaky hand came up to his chest to feel for the bullet wound. The next second, he was on the ground ... dead.

Ames sucked in a breath of air, allowing the shock of killing another human being to fill her body, if only for a moment. The other one was still alive, and probably wouldn't be moaning over the loss of his toe for too long after realizing that his partner had just been killed. Moving quickly, she booted him in the head with the toe of her shoe, knocking him backwards. The final blow was enough to allow him to finally succumb to unconsciousness.

Gripping the weapon in her hands, Ames's eyes moved back and forth between the two men. She took several steadying breaths, trying to calm herself down.

Tires squealed towards the entrance of the alley, and she looked up to see Guerrero's car come to a stop just as Winston came running into view. Guerrero jumped out of the El Do, jogging into the alley a few steps before he saw that she was in no immediate danger.

"Someone wanna tell me what's going on?" Chance's voice asked through the earpieces.

Winston slowed his own pace, placing his gun back in its holster as he replied to Chance, "She's okay."

Ames remained silent, watching the two of them approach her.

Guerrero gave Winston a sideways look as he approached the younger girl, checking to make sure she wasn't too badly hurt. "You alright?"

"Ames?" Winston chimed in, walking with Guerrero.

Ames raised her chin once they were in front of her, staring at them through eyes that would undoubtedly be surrounded by large, black bruises soon enough. She turned her head to spit out the blood that had come from her own cut lip. Pointing the gun towards the sky, she held it in front of them with a shaky hand, staring at each of them in turn. "Don't _ever_ call me kid ... **ever** again." She held the glare for a moment longer before she pushed past them and walked out of the alleyway, tucking the gun into the back of her pants as she went.

Guerrero and Winston watched her leave, each with their own look of approval on their faces. Guerrero's grin only widened when he kicked the man on the ground who was slowly coming around.

"Not bad for a rookie," Winston commented.

Guerrero smirked. "Well, she did learn from the best."

Chance's chuckling could be heard over the COMMs as he continued on his way to complete his mission.

...

_The end. _

_Well, what did you guys think of that one? Like it, hate it? _

_Reviews are appreciated, flame if you must, but constructive criticism is much more useful. _

_Until next time ...! _

_P.S. thanks for the review about the typos, they have been fixed. _


End file.
